Madison Heights, Va. — Crews will immediately begin removing thousands of cubic yards of soil containing arsenic, lead, and other contaminants at a location adjacent to the James River where a fertilizer plant operated prior to 1902 and continuing into the 1960s. “The work is anticipated to take approximately two months and will involve a lot of truck loads,” according to William Lindsay, remediation project manager for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. He said the plan is to conduct tests on the soil as it is being excavated to determine if it will be taken to a regular solid waste landfill as hazardous waste or to a regular landfill. The project could extend into three months, during which time a riverside trail will remain open and hikers and cyclists will have the right of way. In all, the digging will involve approximately 11,240 cubic yards of soil and sediment, and some reports say approximately 1,000 truck loads will be required for the cleanup. Some of it is going to be left in place below two feet, and the rest replaced with clean fill and capped. Institutional controls will be in place to prevent any digging below the cap. The four-acre site operated as the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corp. (VCC) phosphate fertilizer plant. ExxonMobil Corp., now designated as the responsible party, submitted a plan for excavation and removal under the state’s voluntary remediation program and arranged for the contractor. Virginia-Carolina entered into bankruptcy in 1924, and at the conclusion of federal reorganization proceedings in 1926 emerged as a new company and continued to own the site. In 1963, VCC merged into Socony Mobil Oil; the company name changed in 1966 to Mobil Oil Co. As Virginia-Carolina, the company produced superphosphate fertilizers.
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